On 21 January, Lviv Polytechnic hosted the first meeting of the newly elected bureau of the Ukrainian National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (UNC ICOMOS). The meeting was chaired by Oleksandr Harlan, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, the Prydniprovska State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture, who was elected as the new president of the ICOMOS National Committee at the meeting on 9 December.
Association of specialists
ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) is a non-governmental international association of specialists in the research, protection, conservation, restoration and use of cultural heritage in 120 countries. Since 1993, the Ukrainian National Committee of ICOMOS has been participating in its activities.
The newly elected bureau includes four representatives of Lviv region, including three from the Lviv Polytechnic Institute of Architecture and Design. They are: Professor Mykola Bevz, the Head of the Department of Architecture and Conservation (DAR), Professor Oresta Remeshylo-Rybchynska, the Department of Design and Architecture Fundamentals (DAF), and Associate Professor Yurii Dubyk, the Department of Architecture and Conservation (DAC). The fourth Lviv resident in the UNC ICOMOS office is Volodymyr Herych, a senior researcher at the Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery.
Personnel crisis
Vasyl Petryk, a member of the UNC ICOMOS, Associate Professor at the Department of Design and Architecture Fundamentals, the Institute of Architecture and Design, Lviv Polytechnic, said:
– The UNC ICOMOS brings together specialists who can be involved as experts in the assessment of cultural heritage in Ukraine and abroad, and therefore is in constant coordination with the International Council on Monuments and Sites. Accordingly, its president represents the professional community of Ukrainian researchers and restorers to colleagues from the international community.
The newly elected bureau included four representatives from Lviv region. That is why its first meeting was held at Lviv Polytechnic. In addition, the members of the bureau got acquainted with its educational system. After all, Ukrainian universities that train specialists in architecture, museology and monument studies are now promising bases for the staff development of the UNC ICOMOS. It is no coincidence that its new president is the Dean of the University Faculty. Our Polytechnic has the only fully functioning Department of Architecture and Conservation in Ukraine, the other specialised Departments are also developing. And this is in a situation where specialised state restoration research and design institutes are now virtually destroyed.
Meanwhile, the destruction of monuments and historical sites in Ukraine during the war has revealed a huge staffing crisis in the restoration sector – a gap between generations of experienced professionals who are over 60–70 years old and their successors. For a long time, the younger generation was not interested in the problems of restoration, reconstruction and conservation. Everyone was thinking about the future, bright and distant.
New challenges
The reality of the war turned out to be more terrible and cruel. New challenges have arisen, and now more than ever we need those who understand the essence of the historical and cultural heritage, the priceless asset of the Ukrainian nation, which we will have to save and restore after the victory. Therefore, UNC ICOMOS has set itself very important tasks. Firstly, educational – to attract young professionals. And secondly, to communicate with the international community, which is ready to cooperate and help us because it has seen us training specialists during the war. Although there are not enough of them, they are.
The international community has noted that Ukraine is a European country with very good architecture schools, but there is a lack of organisation and communication both within the country and on international platforms.
In fact, UNC ICOMOS is an organisation that seeks to bring together different environments and professionals, to find them and help them to learn. That is why we are currently working to involve universities in such trainings to train the right specialists. Thus, the UNC ICOMOS includes deans and professors of the relevant faculties.
